


the minds eye is never blind

by symbidont (matskreider)



Series: are we human or are we dancer [3]
Category: Venom (Movie 2018)
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Communication, Established Relationship, Excessive use of petnames, Hurt/Comfort, Nightmares, Other, discussion of fears, the violence is only within the context of the dream
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-19
Updated: 2018-10-19
Packaged: 2019-08-04 06:29:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,087
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16341578
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/matskreider/pseuds/symbidont
Summary: It's easy to want to help your significant other through hard times; it's hard to do so when you think you might be part of the problem.





	the minds eye is never blind

**Author's Note:**

> i swear my works are getting shorter; i got a request on tumblr for venom helping eddie through nightmares; this turned out to be a fair bit more introspective than i thought it would be? but i'm hoping that it at least somewhat answers the prompt!

It’s the middle of the night and Eddie’s wide awake. It’s not for a lack of trying to go to sleep, but rather a fear of what lies on the other side of his subconscious. Nightmares plagued him every time he so much as closed his eyes. He understands that it’s his brain’s way of coping with the shit that he’s seen and the things that he’s done – especially when it came to a certain someone’s eating habits – but he’d really appreciate it if maybe he could just opt out of this particular human experience.

He can still feel the winds whipping around him from when they perched on top of his old work building; the whine of the helicopter engine forcing them apart, leaving Eddie exposed to all of death’s wonders as he slid down the side of the building. He’s never felt so frequently helpless than he had in the first few days with his Other. Each trying to comprehend what the other needed, why they needed it, their motivations for expressing themselves as such.

Had Venom not caught him with a gruff, **I got us** , Eddie’s sure he would have been nothing but a mark on the pavement, and a bad dream for Richard to attempt to process in his own time.

That had been one of the first few times that Eddie can remember Venom referring to them – Venom and Eddie – as something of a cohesive unit. Eddie also remembers that that was shortly after Eddie himself had first treated them the same way, referring to them both as _we._

Venom later told him that he’d been so shocked by it that he’d had to repeat it, almost afraid to believe it. He’d also told him that that was the moment that they’d actually begun to bond for real.

(It hurt Eddie to remember that of course this was right before he’d almost killed Venom back at the hospital, before their very complex kiss situation in the forest. It’s not so complex now.)

His Other is content to laze around his lap, a delicately woven inky net spread across his thighs and bed sheets, listening to the sounds of the city around them. Though Venom hates it when Eddie sleeps – he says it’s boring – he’s learned how to keep quiet for hours at a time.

It is a sacrifice that Eddie does appreciate, though right now he doesn’t want to be alone in his head.

 **All you had to do was ask,** Venom gently chides, his voice as soft as he can make it when speaking directly into Eddie’s brain.

Eddie sighs in relief, manages to release the sheets and gently stroke stiff fingers over the familiar inky blackness stretching over his body. “I didn’t know how,” he admits.

**We need rest, yet you fight it. This isn’t good for us.**

“I know, but…”

**The nightmares?**

Eddie swallows, nodding. Venom coalesces more firmly over Eddie’s chest, spilling down his arms and shoulders in a sort of hug. He feels warm to the touch, now, and Eddie wonders if it’s possible for him to control his body temperature to whatever he chooses.

 **No harm will come to you, Eddie. Not when we’re together.** It’s a reassuring thought, one that Eddie knows isn’t an empty promise. He doesn’t verbally respond to Venom, instead nudging positivity towards him. His hands still in the soft moonlight, the reflection on his skin otherworldly. Softly, he asks, “Do you ever get homesick?”

Venom’s curiosity weaves between their two consciousness’s, merging them together into one. Eddie lets him explore, allows him to find whatever answer he seeks – probably a definition to the term _homesick._ The sound of wheels on the pavement runs mutely thuds outside, hitting that one pothole that’s too close to the sidewalk for Eddie’s comfort.

Eventually, Venom responds, **Yes and no. I miss being a part of my species. We shared…everything. But I have a new home in you.**

The affectionate energy between the two of them has no set beginning nor end, but Eddie’s reasonably sure that he is the source. It’s pleasurable to feel that kind of overlap between them. Eddie wouldn’t trade it for anything. Sure, sometimes he misses the way his life was going to play out – 2.5 kids and a cat named Mr. Belvedere – but he thinks that’s due to how society told him he should live his life. There’s a reason his fantasies of his future life stopped involving men when he turned 21and his senior boyfriend broke up with him because their relationship was never going to last beyond college. Then he’d met Anne, and maybe there was a reason he had gone from one relationship immediately to the next.

Perhaps the only thing he’d ever wanted was consistency.

Now, he has a partner who won’t leave him, simply because he depends on him to survive – and also probably loves him, a fair bit. They haven’t said the phrase yet, but it’s apparent in how they feel, how they interact with each other, the names they use. Perhaps that is real consistency; or the consistency that he deserves, strange as he is.

These happy thoughts settle his mind, calming the anxieties from before. Venom hums from somewhere within his ribcage. Somehow, they wind up laying down, Eddie feeling calmer than before. Perhaps Venom was the one who pushed him down, or maybe he was the one who decided to pull the sheet up to their chin.

Distantly, he recalls that he never actually answered Venom, nor responded to his words. But his Other shushes him when he tries to speak, spreading out lazily over his body. **I know.**

The last thing Eddie remembers thinking before falling asleep is _I know you do._

 

* * *

 

_The thud of his body against the platform knocks all the air out of Eddie faster than any panic attack or kick. He remains laying face down, trying to catch his breath and orient himself. His mind is curiously empty, as he catches himself trying to call out for Venom, a vain effort. He’s not even sure if Venom is still whole, or if Riot had somehow gotten to him. They had all been one, but what if –_

_Carlton Drake kicks Eddie with enough force to move him into effort. He knows that their own fight pales in comparison to Venom and Riot, but Drake is a thin rich guy and Eddie’s had to fight off enough people to know some basics. It’s not clean and it’s not choreographed, each of them winding back up on the floor over and over again. But when Eddie finally gets the upper hand, he’s not looking to listen to Drake’s words – he just wants him done, yet he doesn’t want blood on his hands._

_A part of him does want to rip his head off, though he lacks the ability to do so at the current moment._

_So he kicks Drake off the platform and turns to run back up, to the control room or to the rocket itself, to sabotage this mission before it can continue. He hopes, possibly in vain, that Venom is somewhere nearby, that Venom can find him and envelop him once again, and the two of them can be the ones to save the world._

_He doesn’t get much farther before he’s run through the chest. It’s so sudden, the pain can’t set in, but he’s acutely aware of everything. The shattering of his ribs and sternum, the cracking through his spine, the warm blood seeping out of him. The blade – if it could even be called that – is nearly his whole body in length, pinning him like a butterfly to a board._

_His body collapses to the platform, but a large taloned hand, because these aren’t claws these are curved and razor sharp talons, grabs his head and forces him to look up. He stares into unfamiliar blank white eyes, mercury grey warped skin, inhuman jaw with inhuman teeth that open to tell him he is nothing._

_He can feel that Venom is nearby. He’s beneath the platform, was caught up in the inner mechanisms and had to pull himself back together before he’d be able to come back to Eddie. He’s still reaching for him, he’s still trying to encourage his Other to come closer because he needs him, and he doesn’t want to lose his life without Venom present because it’s not just his life anymore, it’s **their** life. _

_He doesn’t want to die alone._

_(Abstractly, he knows that Anne is nearby, that Anne’s quick thinking was what saved him from being completely used by Riot. He doesn’t want her to see this. He doesn’t want her to witness him dying this way. But breathing is getting hard and all he can focus on is the aching emptiness in his mind.)_

_The talons haven’t left his skull, squeezing slightly so blood trickles down his face. He thinks he sees Venom – familiar inky blackness that he yearns to reach out for, but he just can’t fucking **move** – and a part of him knows that he doesn’t want Venom to see him die either. _

_Because he’s going to die. He knows this._

_He feels the gentle, almost affectionate press of teeth against his throat for the fraction of a second before those jaws snap shut._

 

* * *

 

Eddie sits straight up in bed, breathing ragged and throat sore, clammy hands clawing at his throat. His skin doesn’t feel the same, blunt nails dragging against protective, inky smooth darkness around his throat. It’s dark in his bedroom, the sounds of San Francisco muffled through the winter-fogged glass. The neon blue light pulsing through the window doesn’t allow for much by way of sight, but as Eddie tosses back the blankets, he can see the difference between his skin and Venom. Tendrils curl around his ankles, splotches of cover along his bare shins and knees, but it appears that most of Venom is protectively over his torso and arms, like a restraining hug.

Riot’s dead. Drake’s dead.

He’s not dead. _They’re_ not dead.

“I’m not dead,” he whispers to them, seeking some form of anchor. “I’m not dead. This is real.”

 **Yes, Eddie.** Venom sounds almost cautious, hesitant in his words. Eddie gets a few emotions from him, mostly centering around concern and protectiveness, but there’s a bit of…sheepishness? Fear? Worry? It’s somehow deeper than the others, but all the more elusive because of it.

“Did…how much of that did you see?” he asks, forcing himself to rest his hands in the sheets beside them.

Venom moves down to hold his hand, and Eddie squeezes the created appendage in thanks.

**All of it. It is…a memory that haunts us.**

“Got that right.” By now, he’s starting to calm down, his heartbeat returning to normal, and the need to run away begins to relax out of him. As he calms down, Venom starts to seep back into him, though he leaves his hand present, still allowing Eddie that facet of touch. “I’m sorry if I woke you.”

There’s no real answer, only the feeling of Venom rolling his eyes – if that’s at all possible – that makes Eddie roll his in return. Of course Venom wasn’t sleeping, they just finished one of his resting periods last week. Even under the friendly banter, however, Eddie can still feel the sheepish-fear-worry lurking beneath the surface.

“Are _you_ okay?” Eddie asks, resting his free hand over his heart.

**We were scared. We wanted to help if we could. But…there is no denying certain…similarities between symbiotes.**

Eddie looks down at their joined hands, sees the comforting blackness and claws that have come to mean so much to him. Claws that have literally wiped away his tears and brought him so much comfort; they aren’t weapons so much as they are features, a part of Venom. They offer an advantage, Eddie knows, as far as hunting goes. But they aren’t crafted or exaggerated beyond practical use. If anything, they’re the bare minimum that one could expect from a predatory shapeshifting species.

It’s that line of thought that brings Eddie to a realization that he’s sure Venom was trying to put off.

“Wait, you’re worried that you’re like Riot?”

A telling silence answers him.

“Oh…honey, _no._ No, no no no no. Not at all. C’mere.” Secondhand embarrassment floods his system, but the hand stays put, clawed digits curved between Eddie’s. It’s a human response, and Eddie can’t help but coo a little bit. “Sweetheart. Please.”

The pet names finally seem to work, and Venom materializes out of the back of Eddie’s shirt. **“Yes?”**

“You’re nothing like him, at all. For one you’re, like, so much cuter than him. I’ve told you that before. And I don’t know if you could see all of Riot’s memories when we…” Eddie trails off, not really knowing how to phrase what had happened. Luckily Venom knows what he means, but the embarrassment only becomes more potent, leading Eddie to want to soothe him as best as he could.

“Long story short, I said he was the ugliest thing that I’ve ever seen, and this is as he’s like, yelling at me to tell him where you are and I’m strapped to this chair. It could have been the last thing that I said but I just thought it was important to let him know.” Eddie presents it as if he’s speaking neutrally but both he and Venom can feel the humor he’s trying to use to deflect the deeper emotions present in the memories.

Venom hesitantly comes closer, nuzzling him with a hesitantly happy little purr. **“I could see something like that. Drake’s memories were closer.”**

Eddie leans into the affection, absentmindedly wondering if he should shave to feel smoother for Venom. Then again, hair doesn’t seem to make much of a difference when it comes to the symbiote’s preferences for much of anything on this world, so. It’s possibly moot.

“Also,” Eddie continues softly. “You had a change of heart.”

 **“I thought better of ruining the best host that I have ever had.”** Venom pauses for a second, before continuing, **“He wanted to take you from me because of how good of a host you are. And because of what that means for us.”**

Eddie blinks, confused at the turn in the conversation. “Wait, what does that mean?”

**Good hosts are difficult to find. Riot, along with some others from my planet, are stronger than usual. They can use whatever host is nearest to them; hence, how he survived for so long. Unlike me, he doesn’t need a connection with a host to survive. If he were to have an objectively strong one, however, he would be able to boost his own strength. It’s why he was bigger when he had us and Drake.**

Venom’s speaking rather quickly, resorting to mental communication rather than verbal, like he usually does when he’s agitated. Eddie’s been on the receiving end of Venom’s crash courses in symbiote biology and culture often enough that he can parse together exactly what he’s trying to say.

Eddie is still too far sleepy for this, so he gets up and makes his way, stiffly, to the kitchen. He doesn’t bother turning on the light – he’s noticed that over the course of the past few months, his ability to see in the dark had gotten ever better. He neglected to ask Venom about it. Mostly because asking about it might just make it too real.

Instead, in the pale neon blue light, he turns on his Keurig, searching for the reusable K-cups Anne had gotten for him as a peace making gift. Something about “you risked your life to save the world and you’re not going to burn it right back down again with an incredible amount of waste.” Or something similar.

Venom isn’t silent, per say, though he’s not talking. His emotions tremble and vibrate through Eddie in a way that is almost like his mental speech, but as he adds some more water into the machine, no words come forth. It’s not until he’s finally sitting at the table with the mug in his hands, the winter night quiet around them, that he speaks again.

“So Riot wanted me as a host because I’m an overall strong host. You didn’t want that to happen because not only am I a strong host, but I’m your _ideal_ host. You’re still grappling with the fact that we killed your ex, and because we’re having nightmares about it, you’re now worried that I’m going to somehow conflate the two of you. Is that correct?”

Eddie sips his coffee, giving Venom some time to process. He can feel the effort going into planning out what his Other is going to say, and he doesn’t want to interrupt. So he instead tries to focus on the comfort, support, and love that he feels when surrounded by Venom. It earns him a pleased hum in response.

**…well when you put it like that…**

“Love,” Eddie murmurs, and hopeful excitement blossoms within their chest at the endearment, “you and Riot are nothing alike. I trust you and…I _care_ about you a lot. Also you said that you and Riot are nothing alike, so.”

**Human beings are excellent at pattern recognition. It is both a strength and weakness in your species. It allows for quicker judgments of dangerous situations, but it also allows for a potential conflict of truth and past experience.**

“And you don’t want to be just another pattern that I recognize,” Eddie murmurs into the edge of the mug. It’s nice, sitting in the dark like this with a mug of coffee in his hands. He’d missed these quiet moments, even abstractly, back when he was with Anne. Though their late night conversations had never quite taken these turns, he also doubts that he’d ever _truly_ gotten this close with Anne before.

Maybe he should just ask her for her opinion on this.

**Not really. Though it would still be nice to be recognized.**

“I couldn’t forget you even if I tried, love,” Eddie says without pause. He feels a kind of shocked pleasure through their bond, and he smiles a little bit. “Feeling a little better?”

Venom doesn’t verbally answer, instead responding with more of the same feeling, but Eddie knows what he means. Together, they finish the mug of coffee, watching the sun start to rise through the dusty windows.

**Author's Note:**

> love me some comments and kudos, also check me out on [tumblr](https://symbidont.tumblr.com/) if you haven't already!


End file.
